Creeping slowly down another arrow-straight row, the giant harvester deftly snatches the crop from the ground and spits it, two tons at a time, into a train of railroad hopper cars lined up alongside. The sun is setting, but the harvest will continue--24 hours a day, seven days a week. As with many other crops, rain is the enemy here and forecasters warn of imminent showers. But this is no ordinary crop of avocados or artichokes, zinnias or zucchini.

Orange County water officials want to inject millions of gallons of undiluted but highly treated sewage into the ground every day to conserve water and stem the tide of seawater migrating from the ocean. State water-quality officials commend the Orange County Water District's proposal as a good way to turn waste into a resource. But health officials are trying to determine if the waste water might pose a risk to public health if it flows into underground drinking-water supplies.

QUESTION: I heard you mention using Draino drain cleaner on your radio program for cleaning water heaters. I didn't get the formula written down and would like to have it so that I can clean mine. ANSWER: We did mention the use of Draino to dissolve mineral salts that build up at the base of most water heaters. However, we are informed by a professor of chemistry at Stanford that this could be dangerous if proper precautions are not taken.

Seeking new water sources amid the drought, the San Diego County Water Authority has become the only major water provider in Southern California to explore desalting ocean water. The authority believes it can produce as much as 50,000 acre feet of water a year, enough "to serve the entire city of San Diego for a quarter of a year," by building a desalination plant attached to a proposed new power plant in the county, said Byron Buck, the authority's director of planning.

When Southern California Edison and a condominium developer were planning their $3-million project to turn seawater into drinking water on Catalina Island, the technology they chose came straight off the rack. Increasingly efficient and time-tested methods of removing salt from water have made desalination reliable in more and more situations. All that has kept the decades-old industry from flowering has been the relatively cheap supply of bulk water from more traditional sources.

There's only one plausible explanation: The walking batfish was Mother Nature's idea of a joke. So ugly it's endearing, the toadlike creature hovered at rock bottom, maneuvering itself on six gnarled appendages. "You wonder what God had in mind," remarked Rick Becktell, owner of Aquarium International in Westminster. And for what possible reason did evolution precisely split the bicolor Royal Gramma fish's beautiful exterior into half fuchsia, half gold? To make you ooh and ah.

Since 1958, experts have warned that unless something is done to prevent salinity at the Salton Sea from rising, its demise as a fishery and wildlife habitat one day would be inevitable. But now, a series of mysterious biological "anomalies" has raised fears that the long-predicted ecological collapse at this 360-square-mile body of water 150 miles south of Los Angeles may be starting to happen. At stake is one of the most productive fisheries and wildlife habitats in the state.

Why does Owens Lake generate severe dust storms when other dry lake beds scattered through the desert don't? Owens has been dry only about 60 years, and a large pool of brine still lies just below the surface. Most of the time, a thin crust seals the surface salts and clay silt on the lake bed. But when rains wet the salt pan, followed by dry, cold winter winds, the crust ruptures.

Authorities are examining ways to save the Salton Sea, the state's largest inland body of water, which is already saltier than the ocean and threatens to wipe out its fish population. A report by Occidental College researchers concludes that the sea, 150 miles southeast of Los Angeles, could generate $200 million in annual revenue as a fishery and recreation area. But first, $350 million must be raised to fight rising salinity, which threatens fish, the report said.

High-pressure barriers built in the 1960s to hold the ocean at bay have failed to halt the flow of seawater into South Bay water basins, new studies show. In addition, huge pools of salt water trapped inside the barriers have continued to move inland, closing dozens of drinking water wells from Manhattan Beach to central Torrance and threatening several others in Carson that were once thought safe.